In the beginning it was not about the words, though his words are now all that remains. We lived as if in paradise. It was each moment that mattered. He gathered us, connected us, filled us with shared wonder. That was enough. No, it was everything. Explanation was superfluous. Only later did he…… Continue reading The Gospel of Judas, Chapter 1
(The first line of this story is from a federal appellate decision found at 841 F.2d 959. The rest is imagination.) The reason he found jail so intolerable was the constant intrusion of messages from God coming over the loudspeaker. The voice just wouldn’t leave him in peace. He tried to hide from it, ignore…… Continue reading The Voice
As he entered his new office Thomas Burton noted his name was already etched into a metal sign on the door. A slight arrhythmia almost exposed him when he recognized his diplomas and certificates on the wall. Hadn’t he’d destroyed them that last day of his last job? He knew better than to ask what…… Continue reading Someone Else’s Shoes
This is a story. A short story. An entertaining story. This story is not for thinking, and, heavens forbid, for action. Stay seated. Enjoy. This is a story about a man. He’s in his middle age, his black and blue periods, a moment of life in which time has finally caught up with him and…… Continue reading An Entertaining Story: A Short Corporate Fiction
The man peered out at the almost moonless night from dark sunglasses perched on his nose. A limp leather hat concealed a receding hairline; its partridge feather plume bent in the summer breeze. A thick black beard covered most of his face. His only recognizable feature was a Cheshire cat smile which looked almost obscene…… Continue reading The Busker
“Hitching to the Dead is not serious business,” someone once told me. Quite a few Deadheads would disagree. For many in the seventies it was a lifestyle. People were crisscrossing the country with backpacks and bandanas on Winter Tour, Spring Tour, Summer Tour and Fall Tour: the Eternal Tour. Colleges were even giving credit for…… Continue reading Hitching to Egypt
MLSherman 